Confused...

Can someone please help explain the following for stats for me, and tell me whether I should be concerned. I really don't know what the sessions / totals values in the main admin window mean. I know they are related to traffic on the site but I am not exactly sure what they're counting.

Below I have listed these figures for 2 of my sites with roughly similar amounts of traffic. Site 1 shows a fairly consistant pattern of numbers. Site 2 for the last two days, particularly today show really large numbers, but site traffic is normal/typical.

Is this a red flag I should be concerned about.
Thanks

Session - Total

Site 1

10/14/2006 644 - 671
10/13/2006 550 - 567
10/12/2006 486 - 499
10/11/2006 768 - 921
10/10/2006 765 - 792
10/09/2006 807 - 922
10/08/2006 456 - 494
10/07/2006 465 - 510
10/06/2006 611 - 725
10/05/2006 397 - 438


Site 2

10/14/2006 50749 - 50859
10/13/2006 14045 - 14310
10/12/2006 2230 - 2412
10/11/2006 1830 - 1964
10/10/2006 1054 - 1245
10/09/2006 1491 - 1598
10/08/2006 3018 - 3331
10/07/2006 1283 - 1451
10/06/2006 1845 - 1895
10/05/2006 583 - 710

10/14/2006 644 new sessions were started - 671 pages were looked at in total
10/13/2006 550 new sessions were started - 567 pages were looked at in total
10/12/2006 486 new sessions were started - 499 pages were looked at in total
10/11/2006 768 new sessions were started - 921 pages were looked at in total
10/10/2006 765 new sessions were started - 792 pages were looked at in total
10/09/2006 807 new sessions were started - 922 pages were looked at in total
10/08/2006 456 new sessions were started - 494 pages were looked at in total
10/07/2006 465 new sessions were started - 510 pages were looked at in total
10/06/2006 611 new sessions were started - 725 pages were looked at in total
10/05/2006 397 new sessions were started - 438 pages were looked at in total

While only the last 10 are displayed, this is recorded in forever in the counter_history table ...

Ajeh, Thanks for replying - that is good to know.

However, my questions still remain unanswered (please see previous post)-

I still don't know WHAT these numbers are counting,

and HOW the numbers for the last 2 days of SITE 2 can be so very large if traffic has not changed?

I go to your site at 10am ... 1 for Session 1 for Total

I then click through 3 pages ... 0 for Session 3 for Total (4)

I then leave your site ...

Another person comes to the site ... 1 for Session 1 for Total

They leave your site

I come back to your site at 3pm ... 1 for Session 1 for Total

I go to 5 more pages ... 0 for Session 5 for Total (6)

I cannot tell you why people are hitting more/less pages than the previous day ... or why you have more/less session hits ...

This is just counting what's happening on a per day basis ...

I'd have to do some research and comparrisons of your 2 sites and the search engines etc. to see if there is a reason ...

Note: do make sure on both sites that Prevent Spider Sessions is turned ON ... no point in counting a spider or giving them a session ...

Thanks for explaining what is being counted.

Yes "Prevent Spider Sessions" is on for both sites.

User Tracking and AWStats indicates normal traffic, however
sessions jumped from about 1-2K a day to 14K and then 50K.
It just didn't correlate, and I became concerned that something else (hacking related) may be occurring.

You might want to check your sever traffic logs and see if a very chcunk of those hits were from one IP, if so that could have been a Denial of Service attack.

The good news is that if the server is still up and running you have really good hosting.:yes: